Spiced Eggs

It has been a busy couple of weeks! Three weeks ago, Hungry Male and I flew down to Dunedin for my Nephew's first birthday. It was really nice being able to go back home and see everyone, since they were all together for the birthday party. We had a Hairy Maclary theme, and my sister made an amazing Hairy Maclary cake!

We had a weekend to ourselves and then for the following week we had house guests, as Hungry Male and some friends were taking part in the 90 Mile Classic IRB race. For those of you uneducated in Surf Life Saving language, this was an event where they raced one of the orange surf boats 88km down 90 mile beach, with a couple of transition stages in between. I was the support driver and had to follow them down the beach and make sure their petrol was ready at the transition stages. It was really nice getting to head further north for a weekend, even if it was quite a busy one, as I have never been up that way before and we even had enough time to go to Cape Reinga.

Because I was trying to catch up from a hectic weekend, necessity was the mother of invention when it came to lunches, as it was mostly a case of trying to figure something out from what I had in the cupboard and fridge. These eggs were one of my creations. 

I was actually a little obsessed with eggs this week and I had these on crackers, in salads and on toast. They were really a bit of a life saver. I boiled up a bunch of eggs on Monday night and that did me for almost the rest of the week.

Now I haven't quite perfected the easy-to-peel boiled egg yet, so if anyone has any tips please tell me! This batch I added a little baking soda to the water and peeled them under cold water, however, the shell still took a bit of the egg white off with it.

So if you are stuck for lunch or snack inspiration, give these a go!

Ingredients

4 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp sesame seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

Place the eggs in a saucepan with a pinch of baking soda and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a gentle boil and boil the eggs for 6 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat then put the eggs immediately into cold water. Once the eggs are cool to touch, gently peel them while holding under running water.

On a small plate, place the paprika, sesame seeds and cumin seeds. Roll the eggs in the spice mix until well coated. Serve on toast, on crackers or in salads.

Enjoy xx

Lunchbox Solution- Leek and Blue Cheese (or feta) Mini Quiches

After a few painful weeks of waiting, I have finally gotten back the results for my honours dissertation and also my overall results. I am so happy to tell you that I will be graduating with first-class honours! It feels so amazing that all of the hard work, long hours and occasional melt-down has really paid off for me. So now I suppose I really need to get focused on my move away from my hometown to the big smoke of Auckland to start my marketing career. Apart from the excitement of starting this next stage of my life, I am also very excited to have a huge, huge range of places to eat my way around..... taste buds and camera, get ready!

Continuing on this exciting note, I also seem to be getting my food inspiration back! For quite a few weeks after finishing, I would look into the pantry and instead of my brain kicking into overdrive about all the potential things that I could make, all it saw was a bunch of random ingredients that just seemed like a hassle to put together. Anyway, I have been putting this creative streak to good use, so in the next few weeks you can expect to see recipes for Homemade Japanese Rice Bowls, Walnut and Almond Butter, Lentil Bolognaise with Zoodles, along with a post on budget-friendly $2 lunches and a spotlight on strawberries, since they are available in abundance at the moment in New Zealand (sorry Northern Hemisphere, but you can just dream of warmer times).

Onto these quiches! I had something similar at a cafe the other week and really enjoyed the flavour combination. I also thought that it would make a really fantastic portable lunch meal. You could prep some of these for the week and just grab and go in the morning.

I understand that blue cheese is one of those polarising foods. I used quite a mild, creamy blue cheese in this recipe and I really liked the flavour, but if you are really hating on blue cheese, some feta would also work really well in this recipe.

Ingredients
1 leek
1 tsp butter or olive oil
4 eggs
100g mild blue cheese or feta
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup baby spinach (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease around 10 muffin holes, or line with baking paper.

Cut the leafy end off the leek, cut in half lengthwise, and then give it a really good run under the tap to get rid of any remaining dirt. Slice leek into thin half rounds.

Heat butter or oil in a medium frypan and add the leek. Over a low heat, gently sauté until beginning to soften. Remove from heat and leave to cool.

In a large bowl whisk together eggs, self raising flour and milk until well mixed. Crumble in the blue cheese and feta and give another good whisk. Add the leek and baby spinach if using and give one final mix to combine.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans and then place in the oven for around 20-25 minutes or until golden on top and cooked through (they should spring back when you press the top).

Serve warm or cold with salad.